Top 10 Scariest Kids' Movie Villains

Skeletons and horns: two surefire ways to scare a child. “The Black Cauldron” flopped at the box office in 1985 and was widely panned by critics for its dark nature. While we’re fonder of the film than most, we have to admit that critics might have been onto something here. And when it comes to The Horned King? We still get chills. As far as villains go, he has a pretty banal goal. World domination isn’t the most unique of aims. But his character design alone is enough. The skeletal features, the horns, and the mystical energy was enough to scare us out of our wits.

A lot of animated villains are scary because of their character design. But what makes Judge Claude Frollo so frightening is the authenticity of his particular brand of evil. In “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” Frollo becomes obsessed with a woman named Esmeralda, so consumed by his lust for her it leads him to attempt murder. The idea of a powerful, ideological zealot wrestling with what he considered sin and choosing to blame a woman for his own failings is an incredibly adult theme. We didn’t particularly understand it as kids, but boy did “Hellfire” freak us out.

Evil step parents, and evil parents in general, are a staple of many a kids ' movie. But evil aunts? That’s not quite as common. In “James and the Giant Peach,” Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge are two of the most appalling caregivers we could have ever imagined. They’re genuinely sadistic, torturing poor James as much as humanly possible. Just the idea of a family member who is supposed to love you turning out to be so utterly nasty was enough to make kids everywhere terrified. How could these villains be so evil, you ask? Well, they’re from the mind of Roald Dahl - so you can’t really be that surprised!

The “Harry Potter” movies are filled with terrifying villains that go after Harry and his friends. We spent many sleepless nights as a kid terrified that Aragog would crawl out of a dark corner. But there’s definitely one villain who rises above the rest as the creepiest. And it’s not JUST Lord Voldemort. While the Dark Lord has had many horrifying forms, the worst comes in the very first film. At the end of the movie, Harry discovers that Voldemort has been staying alive by leeching off Professor Quirrell. Not only that, but Quirrell has been wearing a turban to hide the fact that Voldemort’s face is coming out of the back of his head.

Birds are scary. That is a universal truth. Jim Henson must have known what he was doing, designing movie villains to look like scary birds. “The Dark Crystal” is a 1982 fantasy film from the minds of Henson and Frank Oz, and delivers something a bit darker than you might expect. It’s a strange, freaky film, but one creature scared us more than most. The Skeksis are a group of cruel, bird-like rulers who use the power of the titular dark crystal to stay immortal. While “The Dark Crystal” may have been billed as a family film, we might advise you to wait a bit before letting the kids watch this one.

She’s one of the most iconic villains in all of film history, and still one of the scariest almost a century later. 1939’s “The Wizard of Oz” is a delightful movie, filled with wonderment as Dorothy discovers the magic of Oz. But one aspect of the movie still scares us out of our wits. Margaret Hamilton’s performance as The Wicked Witch of the West somehow walks the fine line of fitting in a children’s movie while still being deliciously terrifying. Everything Hamilton does, from her voice to her mannerisms, is instantly iconic and forever tattooed in our minds.

When it comes to animated movies, “The Brave Little Toaster” is one of the low-key freakiest ones we can remember. The premise is innocent enough; a group of talking household items, led by a toaster, go looking for their owner. But very quickly, things turn sour. “The Brave Little Toaster” has a number of scary villains, including a very threatening trash compactor. But the most chilling villain comes straight out of a nightmare, literally. In one of the Toaster’s nightmares, he has a vision of an evil clown, who’s one of the most frightening character creations we’ve ever seen. We can’t look into his eyes too long, it’s just too scary.

If you thought The Wicked Witch of the West was scary, just wait until you go back to Oz a second time. “Return to Oz” is a sequel of sorts to the 1939 movie, and while it was much maligned at the time, it has garnered a cult following in the years since its release. After being taken to a sanatorium by her aunt and uncle, Dorothy finds herself in a very different Oz than the one she left. The place is overrun by a group of people called Wheelers. Wheelers literally have wheels instead of hands and feet, which doesn’t sound that scary on its face. But the creature design here is one of the most haunting things we’ve ever seen.

When it comes to scary villains in media made for kids, no one is better at the game than Roald Dahl. “The Witches” is a 1990 movie based on his popular novel of the same name, and the design of the witches in question definitely lives up Dahl’s imagination. The gorgeous Anjelica Huston plays the Grand High Witch, the leader of a group of witches who despise children. But don’t be fooled by her outward appearance. At a convention, she transforms into her true form, and the other witches follow suit. And trust us, none of them look anything like Anjelica Huston!

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Maleficent, “Sleeping Beauty” (1959)
The Dragon Transformation Is Scary Stuff

Gmork, “The NeverEnding Story” (1984)
Those Wild Green Haunt Our Nightmares

General Woundwort, “Watership Down” (1978)
Killer Rabbits Don’t Need to Exist

Professor Ratigan, “The Great Mouse Detective” (1986)
A Criminal Mastermind, But Also a Rat

Rasputin, “Anastasia” (1997)
A Historical Figure We’d Hate to Meet

To a kid with distant parents, the idea of an alternate universe where you find a happy family probably seems like a dream. It definitely did in “Coraline,” when the titular character finds a parallel world where different versions of her parents give her the love and care she’s been longing for. But, this secret world harbors a dark secret. The Other Mother, or Beldam, as she’s known, is actually a terrifying entity who steals the souls of children after sewing buttons over their eyes. Yeah, sounds awful. But it gets worse. The Other Mother isn’t so terrible to behold at first, but when she transforms into her true, spider-like body, she’s absolutely horrifying.